Email Address Retirement Policy

## Purpose

Prevent SharePoint and Microsoft 365 access errors caused by reusing an address associated with a former account.

## Policy

Retire an employee’s address permanently after offboarding. Do not reassign it to a new hire, rehire, or different role, even if the account was deleted or significant time has passed.

Create a new, unique address for each new hire. For a rehire, create a new address unless the original account was preserved and is being reactivated. Check offboarding records to confirm an address has never been used.

## Legacy-User Error

1. Stop extended troubleshooting if the issue is not quickly resolved.

2. Create a new account with a new address.

3. Reassign file and folder permissions.

4. Record the retired address so it is never reused.


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